Abstract / Synopsis
At a time when executive orders and state legislation are attempting to ban practices promoting equity, belonging, and social justice from education, specifically STEM education, in the United States, mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) remain committed to humanizing mathematics teaching and learning practices and seek opportunities to learn how to adhere to their convictions while preparing mathematics teachers for the classroom. This paper offers reflections and considerations for how the authors engaged interested MTEs to shift or strengthen their individual and collective professional praxis through a book study. Specifically, we examine the design (the what) and process (the how) of a book study we cofacilitated in the fall of 2024 in which we read Zavala and Aguirre’s (2023) book entitled Cultivating Mathematical Hearts: Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teaching in Elementary Classrooms. Through this book study, we collectively imagined more humanizing realities in our practice as MTEs as we engaged in heart work, found at the intersection of storytelling and critical hope (Dover et al., 2018). In our community, we aimed to (a) foster the social-emotional well-being of MTEs, (b) expand critical consciousness through storytelling, discussion, and reflection on our pedagogies, (c) develop action plans, and (d) collaboratively curate resources for culturally responsive mathematics teaching. We offer these reflections not as a prescription of how to conduct a book study but rather as considerations for establishing or enhancing a professional learning community grounded in equity, belonging, and social justice.
Recommended Citation
Mary Raygoza, Missy D. Cosby, Sheila Orr, Barbara King, Justin T. Burris & Siddhi Soni, "Cultivating Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Hearts, Critical Consciousness, and Professional Praxis through Book Study," Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 16 Issue 2 (July 2026), pages 120-137. . Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol16/iss2/7
